Eyes Wide Open
by Tutankhamunfreak
Summary: the Guardians had never paid much attention to Jack. That is, until Man in Moon made them look and suddenly trouble no longer looked like trouble. One shot!


There was always trouble with Jack around. Of course, the guardians had known this when they had first taken him in but they hadn't realised just _how much_ trouble there was with Jack around. There was always something frozen, a blizzard being held in the Warren or at the Tooth Palace as a joke. Elves frozen at the North Pole and dream sand half frozen in the wastelands of Iceland and Alaska. But they soon began to learn that there was nothing vicious in this trouble. Only fun.

It took a long time for the fact that Jack was still young to sink in. They had always known this; after all they boy _was_ a teenager in looks and acts. But they didn't completely comprehend how long Jack had spent on his own, how long he had been playing tricks for people's entertainment. He wasn't cruel, he just wanted to play. It was such a childish need that the guardians had completely missed, that they had ignored in their apprehensions over his being chosen. They had believed all of Bunnymund's stories about him, thought little of his pranks and jokes that they hadn't taken the time to get to know him. And then the bombshell that he remembered nothing of his past made them all wonder who he was so much that they hadn't bothered to pay any attention to anything else about him after that.

It had been Sandy in the end, who had made them notice. At first he had had his reservations. The boy didn't give a great first impression, not helped by Bunny's actions towards him. Sandy had been cautious when Jack had egged him on to follow him out to chase the Nightmares, mainly because everything he knew about the boy didn't add up. He had seen the childish glee that the boy took in his dream sand. He noticed how, unlike with all the other guardians, he was more entranced by his work than bothering to try and mess it up. But when in the North Pole he had been witty, sarcastic and offensive, indignant at everything thrown at him. But there was insecurity too, something that Sandy had seen very little in him before. And finally, when chasing the Nightmares he had to keep checking he was still with the same Jack Frost. The boy laughed as if this were some kind of game, a game that was fun and played with friends. He was happy to be with someone, a_nyone_, who could see who he was and what he did. And Sandy realised that beneath the powers, beneath the cold, cool exterior, was a true child, one that had been neglected by them. In Jack, they had failed.

Tooth saw it a little too, after getting past her stardom of his teeth. The boy had been scared when coming to see them after the egg hunts. He had been staring at them from one to the other, scared of _them_, scared of what they might do. It was not something she was used to seeing on a child's face and she had seen how it had affected the others too but they wouldn't back down, especially Bunnymund. They felt it best to leave Jack out of it in case he messed something else up. But she had reasoned in her head that he was a child. Something had happened, something before he had met up with them again, that had rattled him to the core. And now he was afraid of them and they had simply pushed him away. They had failed him.

North didn't have many regrets in his life, mainly because he loved to bring joy and wonder to children. He tried to save the best creations for those who would need them the most. The poor children, neglected children, abused children… any who were left alone he tried to help. But Jack… Jack he had ignored. He had put him on the naughty list year after year, disapproving of his wild ways and wondering what had ever gotten into the Man in the Moon to make such a child into a spirit. He wasn't even sure he had met Jack in his previous life. He remembered a similar-looking boy who had nearly always been on the edge of the naughty list but he reasoned that he couldn't be _that_ boy. That boy had helped those worse off than him, entertained his sister, loved everybody and everybody loved him. Jack was irresponsible but sometimes hindsight was truly a terrible thing. That boy… well, North had wanted to reverse time and give Jack anything he had wanted for the past three hundred years. How could he ignore someone who couldn't even remember who they were? How could he have been so stupid to leave the most neglected child on the planet alone for t_hree hundred years_?

But time was a fickle thing, one the guardians didn't have. They couldn't back down from their previous decisions, only change them. Jack was trouble all right, but he was a certain kind of trouble. He was the emotional turmoil that new parents feel, the attitude throw back at the world by teens, the hurt of those left behind. But jack was also joy, the new special joy that children felt at their first snowfall, their first Christmas. North could bring them presents, Sandy dreams, Bunny eggs and Tooth memories, but only Jack could pass on true _emotion_. They watched from the side-lines as he made special flakes fall over a tiny poor town and play with the children. They watched as he threw blizzards at rich cities, throwing his dis-pleasure out at the world and yet giving the children fun outdoor activities to do at the same time. While adults complained over the problems the snow caused, children cheered over free days off school. Jack was joy and they had never seen it before because they didn't want to.

The day Jack became a Guardian Man in the Moon had opened their eyes to the real world. The world of here and now without the terrors of ages past. A world where there were those who were not all they seemed to be, and that even the brightest jewels could be hidden if you didn't wish to see them.


End file.
